Tamina water project gets additional federal grant

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, December 10, 2001

The Tamina community stands to get another $250,000 to augment a project that will provide sanitary sewer hook-ups and better water service to more than 250 homes in the largely low-income subdivision between Oak Ridge North and Conroe east of Interstate 45.

By ERIC AIKIN and JIM WEBRE

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, announced the federal grant out of a national community development fund that augments the county's existing Community Development Block Grant entitlement. Although the grant requires a 45 percent match by the local community, that requirement can be waived under certain circumstances.

One Tamina resident said the work would do more for the community than almost any other improvement he could think of.

"We're just so glad and thankful that we can get this help for the community," said Silas Johnson.

Of the 250 homes in Tamina community, only about 170 have existing water connections, and some have no water or sewer service at all.

"This is for the neediest of the needy," Brady said in announcing the $250,000 in additional funding. "It's because of you — the Tamina Water Supply and Sewer Service Corporation, Friends of Tamina, Oak Ridge North and Montgomery County — that this was possible."

Oak Ridge North Mayor Joe Michels said the work would benefit not only Tamina but the whole area around his city on the edge of Tamina.

Precinct 3 County Commissioner Ed Chance said that while there may be a possibility that the county could escape the requirement for a 45 percent local match to obtain the federal money, if those funds become necessary, "I'll get it somewhere."

The money will be used to help provide sanitary sewer taps to virtually all the residents of Tamina, which now is served only by aging and, in some cases, dysfunctional septic systems.

In addition, the Tamina Water Supply and Sewer Service Corporation, which will inherit the assets of the Tamina Water Corporation within the next year, will be the grant recipient.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is providing some $750,000 to the project at a rate of $250,000 a year. The balance of the money needed to complete the tap installations will come from a low-interest loan from the Texas Water Development Board. The overall cost of the work will be about $3.4 million.

The TWSSS had originally wanted $500,000 for the work.

The work is essential to improve the lives of at least 1,200 people living in the unincorporated community, and Chance said the work hopefully can be completed before bond-funded road improvements begin to avoid conflicts and damage to new roads when trenches and installation of water and sewer line taps are completed.

"This is a big plus," said Tamina resident Ranson Grimes. "There won't be anyone in this community left out now."

Tamina is one of Montgomery County's oldest predominantly black communities with families whose generations go back to the 1860s. In fact, Tamina was founded by former slaves after the Civil War.

Oak Ridge North, Friends of Tamina, Montgomery County and the TWSSS have long sought the funds to improve the essential services of water and sewer to the area, but Montgomery County's overall wealth and higher incomes have precluded the county from being eligible for such expenditures.

While the Tamina Water Board began the process, that corporation plans to disband once the money is in the pipeline and turn over its assets and operations to the TWSSS.

A municipal utility district will contract with the TWSSS to treat the sewage through the auspices of the Oak Ridge North contract with the MUD, said Gary Louie, president of the TWSSS.